The Portland Timbers won on Friday night. Beat the Chicago Fire 1-0. And it’s not exactly news that wins are important in sports, but this one was a must for the Timbers—the easiest remaining game on a schedule that is about to get brutal.
It’s a good thing that the Timbers are fairly ruthless against inferior competition at home, and it was an especially good thing on Friday night that the competition was inferior. Yes, the Timbers won and increased the likelihood that they’ll be in the MLS postseason for only the second time. But they didn’t soothe fears that this team is just a lightweight in the grand scheme of things.
The performance Portland turned in beats maybe three teams in this league. Chicago is one of them. The Timbers won with just two shots on goal, while they were out-possessed and out-passed on their own field by a team that has one, maybe two redeemable players.
I don’t think we’ve seen the Timbers give a team their best shot in quite some time, and to be quite honest, I’m not sure what their best shot is anymore. Tonight it was Chicago. Now the easy part is done. Problem being, of course, that the easy part looked anything but easy.
That’s not to take anything away from Portland winning. There were, certainly, a few standout performances in an otherwise frustrating night. Diego Chara remains a monument to what the human race is capable of producing, while Nat Borchers could probably lead the NHL in blocks in his spare time if he could skate. Will Johnson pitched in and grew in stature is the night progressed, and when he and Chara play, the Timbers don’t lose.
That’s all good stuff. Diego Valeri worked his tail off, despite seeing almost none of the ball, and his touch to set up the game winning goal from Fanendo Adi was sublime. Give Adi his due too, for once. The Timbers would be Colorado without his goals. Ten of them now, by the way, which is tied for fifth in the league. He’s hit double digits faster than anyone in the Timbers’ MLS era.
If Adi had finished the way Lucas Melano did, he would have been skewered. Melano, Portland’s most expensive player ever, made his home debut in desirable circumstances: With his team up a goal late on, providing plenty of room to run behind the Fire defense.
Melano can burn. That much is obvious. So obvious, even, that he might necessitate a formation change to a two-forward system, considering that the Timbers can hardly part with Adi’s production at the moment. Hopefully Melano’s jitters in front of goal were a sign rust and not a more general lack of polish. Considering this team’s offensive record—they’re not even on pace to score forty goals this season when they banged in 61 in 2014—they need to be.
Portland did the bare minimum. They ground out a win. Would have been impressive on the road, or even at home if the opponent was of playoff quality.
But Chicago is barely an MLS team. They’re that bad. Manager Frank Yallop managed to put together a 4-4-2 formation that deployed the team’s two creative central midfield players as wingers, and that didn’t even make the list of the top ten atrocities that the Fire produced on Friday night.
That Porter’s first goal was to have his team stay compact and focus on defense first wasn’t exactly surprising, but it was unambitious and unflattering on a team and a coach that have had and should have bigger ambition.
The rediscovered pragmatism, a product of the road shellackings the Timbers took in late June and July, isn’t a long-term solution. It works against bad teams—and that’s what San Jose and Chicago are if we’re being charitable—but it’s produced one goal in 180 minutes. Before Valeri’s first start in May, the same type of football got Portland just seven goals in nine games.
And it wasn’t like Chicago didn’t have their chances, it was more like Chicago’s chances were all taken by reincarnations of Alvas Powell.
Right now, the Timbers look like they have no idea how to get their big players in good spots. Valeri pushed higher up the field than he did against San Jose, but never got consistent service, and Nagbe continues to mesmerize in all the places on the field that his skill is least useful.
The game-plan against the Timbers isn’t so hard to come up with. Pack the middle of the field and force Portland wide, where none of the team’s real attacking threat is. Powell isn’t even worth marking, while both Villafaña and Rodney Wallace are serviceable but limited. Portland is more desperate now than ever for Melano to stretch the field, open space, and provide a different dimension.
The thing to remember, though, is that no one believes in this Timbers team like the men who constructed it. Porter has maintained from the get-go, though some awful stretches, that Timbers would be fine in the long-run. Now that Melano is in the fold, there is even more confidence that all the pieces are in place.
Porter also believes strongly in his ability to have his team peaking at right time. But that time is fast approaching, and the Timbers aren’t fooling anyone. They’re laboring right now—overcompensating on defense, underperforming on offense. There are still games left to improve, but Porter sounded far too pleased with his side’s performance after the match on Friday night.
Shaun Maloney should have tied the game late on. He had a clean look at the top of the box, and curled his shot just wide. That shouldn’t have come as a surprise, I suppose. The signing of Maloney, an overpriced, unfit, limited footballer in a position that Chicago didn’t need help in continues to be indicative of all that’s wrong with the Fire. On Friday night, Portland was the beneficiary.
This one counts for three points, and that’s a big deal. Just don’t confuse an important win with a good win.
